Saudi clerics ban The 99 comics and cartoons
2 Comments Published by Avi Green on Wednesday, March 26, 2014 at 8:17 AM.
If there's any place in the world where the Kuwaiti-based Islamic propaganda comics have been declared haram (taboo), it's in the most Islamist bastion of all, Saudi Arabia:
This shows that no matter how pro-Islam the comic and cartoon are, many Islamofascists will still shun the product. Al-Mutawa must be feeling very bewildered yet incapable of understanding how censorship works under his own religion.
Saudi Arabia’s top clerics have declared an Islam-inspired cartoon series, which earned praise from US President Barack Obama, a “work of the devil” that Muslims should not watch.That's interesting how, even in the publisher's very own country, it met with scowls of disapproval. One reason could be because at least one of the female characters in the comic doesn't wear a burka, and a lot of Islamofascists detest the idea of depicting women even remotely as heroines.
The television version of superhero comic book “The 99″ is being aired by Saudi-owned satellite channel MBC3, based in Dubai in the neighboring United Arab Emirates.
But in a religious decree carried by Saudi websites on Monday, the clerics ruled the series blasphemous because the superheroes of its title are based on the 99 attributes ascribed to Allah in the Koran.
“The 99 is a work of the devil that should be condemned and forbidden in respect to Allah’s names and attributes,” the clerics, led by the kingdom’s mufti, Abdulaziz al-Sheikh, said.
The original comic strip version, first released in 2006, had already ran into opposition from Muslim hardliners not only in Saudi Arabia but also in neighboring Kuwait, where it was created and produced by media executive Nayef al-Matawa.
This shows that no matter how pro-Islam the comic and cartoon are, many Islamofascists will still shun the product. Al-Mutawa must be feeling very bewildered yet incapable of understanding how censorship works under his own religion.
Labels: animation, Europe and Asia, islam and jihad, misogyny and racism, politics
CBR has a bit up now that says the author of 99 disputes the report. He says that the book has been available in Saudi Arabia for seven years.
Yes, I found it on this page. The House of Saud may not have banned it per se, but the clerics still have some influence in that region, so it remains to be seen if the comics and cartoon will be banished from Saudi Arabia by its government.